


the channel

by MissSunFlower94



Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: Episode 170, Friendship, Gen, I support Barnes and his seaside cottage dreams, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Missing Scene, Sasha Rackett (mentioned) - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-16
Updated: 2020-09-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:48:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26496670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissSunFlower94/pseuds/MissSunFlower94
Summary: Cel isn't the first person to ask about the future
Relationships: Celiquillithon "Cel" Sidebottom & Commander James Barnes, Celiquillithon "Cel" Sidebottom & Zolf Smith, Commander James Barnes & Zolf Smith
Comments: 10
Kudos: 29





	the channel

Cel has never heard Barnes talk as much as he is now, describing the type of small fishing vessel he’d like to own one day in a world that isn’t ending. They interject minimally - even though they have a lot of very good ideas about alternative fishing methods - in part because they’re concerned that if they jostle him out of this strange talkative phase, he might never pick it back up again. They find themself wondering if this will help everyone on the ship get out of their own heads, their own ways of thinking. They weren’t kidding when they told Barnes that transforming into a different animal from time to time really helped with their perception. 

It will be interesting, when everyone is back in their own bodies, to see if this new openness remains. 

They really do wish they could have been included. 

Embarrassingly, they’re only half-listening to Barnes at the point that they hear footsteps coming down from deck. They recognize the solid  _ thud _ s and aren’t surprised to hear Zolf’s voice calling down before he’s made it all the way to them. 

“Oi, who’s seen Carter last?” 

Cel and Barnes exchange a look. To their great amusement, they can see an actual grin on Barnes’ kobold face, Sassara’s big, dark eyes glittering with laughter. They grin back. “I think that’d be us,” they call.

“Oh good, Ce- wait, who’s  _ us _ ?”

Before either of them can answer, Zolf takes the final steps down and comes into view. He looks between Cel, Sassara-Barnes, and Nataan-Carter and they watch him quickly and accurately work out the situation. The resulting exasperated expression has no edge to it and Cel thinks there might be the smallest smile. “Well, I see you’ve got things under control, then.”

“This is an unjust imprisonment,” Carter says adamantly, though he’s not really doing anything about it. “I’ve done nothing.”

“Nothing  _ yet _ ,” Zolf says, just as Cel says the same thing and Barnes makes a disbelieving noise. Zolf’s smile grows to the point that it’s unmistakable. “Good move, both of you.”

A bit like Mr. Wilde, although in a distinctly different way, Zolf seems to be doing better for all the chaos around him. And maybe that’s why Cel says, “Well... one can never have Carter  _ too _ under control, you know? If you want to keep watch with us. If you’ve- if you’ve got time.” Beside them, Barnes shifts, awkwardly swooping his- Sassara’s- _the_ tail to the side to sit down more comfortably.

Zolf pauses, glancing up the stairs whence he came, and then shrugs. “Yeah, alright. Need to sleep soon if I want to,” he makes a vague gesture that Cel thinks is meant to denote his magical abilities but doesn’t do a great job of it. “But yeah. Got a bit of downtime.”

He comes over and, after a brief hesitation, chooses to sit down between Cel and Barnes. He draws his knees up and Cel watches him dip a hand under the lip of one boot, rubbing at the metallic leg underneath. They have no idea how the Wild Magic might have affected the magic in them, but they bite their tongue before they ask. Offering to look at someone’s legs has its time and place and this is probably too public. 

Carter, who has sequestered himself in a corner, speaks up again, “So- you got any _ thrilling insights _ on fishing, Zolf?”

Zolf blinks. “Um. No?” 

Barnes gives a soft laugh. “We were on your favorite subject,” he says dryly.

“Fishing?”

Cel, a little lost, has to snort at that. Barnes glances at them in solidarity, and then back to Zolf. “The future. What we’d do with it.”

“Ah… right,” Zolf says, his expression closing all at once. Cel feels it like a punch to the gut, guilt they’d almost managed to shove down beginning to rise again. 

“We- I mean, we can talk about anything, though,” they say quickly. “I didn’t know that was- I mean, if that’s not a good- good topic, I’ve got plenty of others. Or-or-or we can keep talking about fishing-”

Zolf shakes his head, but doesn’t look at them. “No, it’s just- it’s something we used to talk about, early into… everything. When it was easier to imagine things ever going back to normal. It,um, it lost its novelty quickly.” 

“Oh,” Cel says quietly. They glance at Carter, but he appears to have found the deck of cards in the cabin and has been trying to shuffle them with kobold claws. He’ll be occupied for a while. They sit beside Zolf and Barnes, drawing their own knees up. “Sorry.”

“You didn’t know,” Barnes says with a little shrug. “And I don’t mind it as much as some.”

Zolf snorts. “Thanks.” 

“Didn’t mean it like that.”

“I know, I know.”

They’re all silent together, the serious tone at odds with Carter’s quiet, frustrated mumbling. A second later there is the distinct sound of a card tearing and an emphatic curse. Cel bites their lip and Zolf covers his mouth with a hand. Barnes sighs, loud and so very put-upon and Cel dissolves into giggles. 

“Shut up,” Carter calls, and that’s enough for Barnes and Zolf to lose it, too. 

“So, fishing,” Zolf says after the laughter has faded. “That was yours, right?” 

“The channel,” Barnes clarifies. “Settle in Calais or somewhere on the french coast.”

“Didn’t spend enough time in Calais,” Zolf says absently, returning to rubbing at his leg. “But the channel…”

There’s a brief silence and Cel watches Barnes as Barnes watches Zolf - his kobold face extremely expressive and full of conflict, weighing what he might say next. “That was yours, too, wasn’t it?” He asks at last.

Zolf tenses for an instant and then relaxes with a long sigh. “Charter a ship,” he says, his voice quiet, wistful and so, so sad. “Spend some time on the channel, and up the north sea a bit... Teach Sasha to sail.”

_ Oh. _

Cel never knew Sasha, heard about her most from Azu and Hamid - someone they had lost after Zolf had gone off on his own. He’d mentioned her in passing but this is the first time Cel hears the same grief that they’ve clocked in the other two, coming out so strong in so few words that it makes their heart ache and their breath catch in their throat. 

Barnes just nods. “Right,” he says, the single word holding sympathy and understanding and the end of subject. 

Silence falls over the group again and Cel feels it like a heavy weight. They take a small amount of comfort in knowing Zolf well enough by now to know that if he wants to leave a conversation he will, politeness be damned. This is something he was willing to say, willing to share, in spite of everything. Maybe it’s not just body swapping that has made people feel more open. Maybe that can extend to them, too. 

“I was telling Barnes, I’ve never- I’ve never seen the channel,” they say, barely hearing themself speak. “I’ve seen channels, you know, but not- not that one specifically. Wasn’t really high on my to-do list, so to speak, but… the channel sounds like a- well, it sounds like you all like it a lot, and you’ve all seen a lot of places so-” They look up from where they’ve been wringing their hands to find both gentlemen looking at them. “Maybe I’d visit? When things are- are- well, when- when they’re-”

“Yeah,” Zolf says, helpfully relieving them from ending that statement. “That’d be- I mean, if you want, that’d be nice.”

“Yeah,” Barnes echoes, and Cel watches the tail that’s his-but-not-his has started to move more comfortably, showing his contentment without words. “It’s a plan, then.”

Cel raises their eyebrows and Barnes actually smiles again. Zolf rolls his eyes. “Sure. A plan,” he says, his voice very dry - but there’s a fond glimmer in his eye. 

And as Cel settles back more, leaning against their makeshift cage and enjoying a far more comfortable silence with good company, they realize they’re smiling, too. 


End file.
